Fires,Josie, and Putty Tat.

We had thunder, lightening, and rain, it seemed like most of the night. I lost count of the number of times that thunder woke me up. Then the hiss of the rain on the roof, had me checking to see if the noise was normal. Some yo yo drove in the gate and took an excursion down the runway, but I somehow missed that one. We just found his tracks when we took Putty for a walk this evening.

I have been helping the neighbors put up their hay this year. With all the rain last night, it was too wet to stack hay, so I had the day off.  After I did my chores, I rolled Dart out of the hanger and went for a recon. Here is a short video of the fires locations.
http://vimeo.com/26517093


After I got back, I spent some time editing the video, and while it was up loading, I went to close the hanger doors. I had one of the doors pulling it into position and almost stepped on a Bull Snake, sunning himself on the concrete. Once I touched back down, I grabbed him by the tail and went looking for Josie. She has never seen a snake before and I wanted to let her know what they are, and to stay away from them.

 A lot of barking and nervous jumping is apparently the way to handle a snake.

She didn't have any trouble being hinky about snakes. This is the closest that she got to it. I was very pleased to know that she won't go up to a Rattler and smell its nose. Bull Snakes are normally difficult for a dog to smell. This one was no problem for her nose at all.

Then it was Putty Tat's turn for attention. We went for our walk up the runway. The wind was encouraging her to try to go someplace other than where I was. I wore the work glove again, and she showed little inclination to foot me in more than an occasional desultory manner. She cannot believe that I willingly let her bite me however, and she is still insisting that it should hurt. Finally after she had bated several times, I stopped and just petted her until she was worn out from biting me.

When we got back to the house, Karen got a squirt bottle to cool her off with, and I sat down to let her settle a bit. When I picked her up tonight, I weighed her and found that she had dropped an ounce of weight. I had not intended that, but it meant that I could feed her all she wanted. After she had settled down, I offered her a tidbit, which she took with no hesitation. I then got up and took her to the fence and sat her there. I fed her a big part of her meal just making her reach for the tidbits.

 Once she was on the fence, she made no effort to leave.

Finally after I had given her most of her food allotment, I sat down and fed her the rest from my bare hand. No striking or biting now. When I brought her into the house she bated for her perch when she got into range. Things are going well.